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I had no one to dive with so I did a ring around and was invited to join a Dutch team who were diving in Oban Scotland. The Breda was a Dutch wreck that was sunk in December 1940. It is a large wreck and I did three dives and there is still more to see.

Link to film of a dive on the Breda

I took some photographs but not underwater as the diving was challenging enough and some of it was on my own which is not in the Padi Manuel! It is very testing diving with limited visibility and with people, who at least at first, did not speak your language.

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We did not get a photograph of the Ospreys but we did meet a slow worm who was more obliging in having his/her photograph taken

The weather looked good in the West, Lynne was on holiday so we travelled up to the Lake District. We stopped at the nature reserve at Warton crag and then camped near Keswick at Lanefoot farm. We went on a very long walk up to Lord’s seat and then on to Hopegill Head and Grisedale Pike. It took over 9 hours but the weather was perfect and the knees just about coped with the day. Other parts of the body complained more which was a pleasant surprise. We walked over to see the Ospreys and watched them going about their daily business.

Photographs

Reflections in the reservoir on our walk at the end of my school year

The term finished – time to do some thinking
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Family Party – those who stayed over night and went for a walk on Sunday morning

Travelled down with Lena and Tom. Kate came with Sarah and family. Sleeping arrangements were debated and negotiated. I slept in a tent. Lena and Tom did the same.

Evening Primrose at Formby

It is a very rare event when you wake up in Padfield and the first thoughts that you have when you look out of the window are – GO TO THE BEACH. That is what happened this morning and there was a mad rush to get there before the rest of this over populated isle and to return before one became gridlocked. We went to Formby a place I took students to over 30 years ago. I still remembered the natter jack toads in the slacks. The beach was heaving but we were more interested in the dunes.

Photographs

inside the Caminoland an old ferry sunk at 40m.

A Self catering apartment with a sea view. I had a quite a day before the first dive. It went something like this.

Photos after text.
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wild garlic in Deepdale

We went for a walk to see some flowers, the wild garlic was amazing and we also saw a lot of Meadow Saxifrage and Mountain pansy. We got wet on a number of occasions. I have to admit seeing water buffalo was a surprise.
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Querelle Surtana Sardinia

Instead of being a climbing holiday it was a holiday that included climbing. This is the third time I have visited this hanging valley. On this trip we climbed on crags in the main that we had considered too popular on my first visit. There are less flights now and maybe I am more tolerant. Surtana has also been very quiet!

Some climbing photographs

One day of rain was enough, on the second day we went to see the wall art in Orgosolo; we were impressed.

I took many photographs

In the spirit of trying new things we went sea Kayaking – brilliant fun if you are in the right place.

Sea Kayaking from Cala Gonome to Cala Luna – Sardinia

I used the housing for my G9 which I use for diving to protect the camera. The photos are here.

A Spring day. I went for a run before brunch and a walk in the afternoon. I saw Colts foot, Wood-sorrel and a lot of catkins. Dead frogs were crushed on the roads and there is frog spawn in the ponds. The road kill was excessive – owl, rabbit, fox and hare – on the Snake Pass, I am not sure why. Lapwing and Curlews are doing their thing and Canada geese are ubiquitous and should be culled.

A couple more photographs here

My last visit was with Ryan it was quite a day out. This was a lot calmer and with Andrew. We did not follow our guide but this is not a problem on a wreck as we could hardly get lost.

Andrew showing that he is not as big as the propeller on the Thistlegorn – Red Sea

The photographs from the holiday

Egypt is surprisingly quiet at the moment. The Russians and the majority of European countries have advised people to keep away.

Ending a drift dive by sending up an SMB before taking our safety stop at 5m

We had a good week diving but realised that a 6 month gap is too long without diving to be able to jump straight off the boat into a full drift dive. It was a bit of a shock. The lack of people was good and the dive sites were quiet. I took some photographs but they need processing and they will follow soon.

The Serengeti – above Curbar.

Our Saturday morning walk,the most elderly of options as we neither had a hangover nor any more athletic pastime to consider, we went for a pleasant walk before the sun came out properly. Our imagination ran wild and we considered some flat land above Curbar as the Serengeti a place we had not visited but connected it to vast herds of Wildebeests and lions and such. Silver birch became Acacia trees and sheep became lions…. Grow up!

Some photographs

Lynne and I travelled down to London on Thursday night for the BETT 2011 event staying with Sarah On Friday evening it rained a lot, after clearing the drains Isabel and I did “singing in the rain”. On Saturday we explored the potential of travelling through London with an RTF strike and numerous line closures. We tried to visit the Gauguin exhibition in London it was the last day and we did not get in. Tate Britain did let us in and we enjoyed the Turner and Constable paintings.